Today is the last matchday of the Australian Open, and at 4:30 p.m. Beijing time, Rodrawall Stadium will usher in the men's singles final, with No. 5 seed Nadal and No. 2 seed Medvedev competing for the title.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, the website of Spain's "El País" published a column by Uncle Nadal (hereinafter referred to as Uncle Tony), which analyzed and predicted today's Australian Open men's singles final.
In the article, titled "You Can't Fall into a Trap," Uncle Tony begins by writing, "Rafa Nadal had to take the risk of opening his angle and trying not to get caught up in Medvedev's encirclement tactics." ”
Here are the main contents of this article.
For Berrettini and Nadal, reaching the semi-finals of this year's Australian Open is a commendable achievement – Berrettini is hopeful to win his first Grand Slam and Nadal is hoping to win his coveted 21st Grand Slam.
Since August last year, a recurring foot injury has left Nadal in a state of great uncertainty and pain. After coming to the Australian Open, Nadal reached the final, which brought him satisfaction, but also inevitably brought tension, which was a double-edged sword for him. In the final stages of a major event, how to deal with these tensions will be a key factor in determining the outcome of the game.
In that regard, I think Nadal has some advantages. He has more experience than his opponents, and his performances in so many Grand Slam finals in the past confirm that Nadal can still maintain a clear head and good physical reflexes in this situation.
In this regard, Nadal's semi-final against Berrettini is a testament to that. At the beginning of the game, Berrettini was obviously less confident, and his play was not as stable as usual. In both the first and second sets, Berrettini was broken on his first serve and was passive from the start.
Relatively speaking, Nadal's play is very stable, especially in the first two sets of the semi-finals, he did all the links well. For example, he has few unforced mistakes, his backhand performance is also very good, he knows how to change different ways to attack opponents, and his running is also very accurate, and he can play a beautiful winning score at the best time.
From the third set, Nadal's fitness began to decline, which affected his competitive form and playing level, Berrettini began to take the initiative, and the Italian managed to win the third set, which gave the impression that he had the ability to reverse the game. Luckily, Nadal held his ground in the final stages, bringing the game back into his own rhythm and eventually winning the semi-finals.
Now, nadal has another huge challenge ahead of him to try to win his second Australian Open title since 2009 and break the 20 Grand Slam draws he has held with Federer and Djokovic. In the final, Nadal will face Medvedev, and the Russian is currently the most feared opponent on the tour.
Judging by the last two weeks, my predictions for this final are both hopeful and restrained.
I'm sure this final won't disappoint anyone. Medvedev's style of play is different from most people's, his movements look a little awkward, but the ball is thrown out very fast. His serves look strange but very effective, and his second serve is also powerful and has very good control.
Judging from the performance on the field in the past few years, it is very important that Medvedev can maintain enough calm in major games and key moments.
For this final, Nadal must be the first to strike and take the initiative first. In my opinion, Nadal's bottom line shot should maintain sufficient intensity and take a certain risk for this intensity, and he should try to avoid falling into the opponent's trap.
Medvedev usually hits a few meters behind the baseline, so Nadal should try to tear the angle apart in order to maximize the mobilization of the opponent. I want Nadal to be efficient throughout the game, and he knows how to take any small opportunity to improve himself and when to score points decisively online.
At 9:30 a.m. this Sunday (i.e. 4:30 p.m. Beijing time today), the scoreboard at Rodrawall Stadium will be cleared again, and a wonderful and anticipated final will kick off. For both players, stress, tension and desire will flood their brains.
The above is the main content of Uncle Tony's article, and I have compiled it properly while respecting the author's original intentions.
Next, let's hear what the two players have to say about the final. Nadal said: "I'm facing one of the best players in the world and if I can't play at the highest level then there's no chance of winning. We're going to start making tactics and I have to play at my highest level. ”
Compared to Nadal's few words, Medvedev said that he was much less stressed than Nadal, "We all know that Rafa likes to drag opponents into multi-shot competitions, which is also my favorite style." He's the kind of guy who does his best from the first ball to the last and I do the same. I don't have any pressure in this game, after all, I'm not the player who wants to win the 21st Grand Slam title, I want to break the record, I just want to focus on myself.
"Of course I'm not going to lie, I know exactly what Rafa wants to chase, and I know what Novak wants to chase... But it's all their business and I just want to win the final here. This time I will try to prepare better and show my best self. That's the lesson I've learned from the last 3 Grand Slam finals, which is that you have to do better than 100% to have a chance of winning. ”
Finally, I would like to add important highlights and statistics about this final.
This afternoon's final is Nadal's 29th Grand Slam final and his 6th Australian Open final, after winning 1 Australian Open title and 4 Australian Open runners-up. If Nadal wins today, his number of Grand Slam titles will come to 21, surpassing his equal Federer and Djokovic, and will also achieve at least 2 titles in all four Grand Slams, that is, double Grand Slams, while only Djokovic holds the record of double Grand Slams among active players.
The final was Medvedev's fourth Grand Slam final and his second Australian Open final after winning the 2021 Australian Open runner-up. Medvedev is also the runner-up of the 2019 US Open and the 2021 US Open champion. If Medvedev wins today, he will be the player to win again in the next Grand Slam immediately after winning his first Grand Slam, a feat that no one has ever achieved before. What's more, he will also replace Djokovic as the new world number one.
For today's final, all the expectations and points of interest can be boiled down to one question – after successfully blocking Djokovic from winning 21 Grand Slams in 2021, can Medvedev stop Nadal from winning 21 Grand Slams? (Source: Tennis House Author: Yun Cirrus Yunshu)